About this writing business

3 Sep

The novel is an event in consciousness. Our aim isn’t to copy actuality, but to modify and recreate our sense of it. The novelist is inviting the reader to watch a performance in his own brain.
George Buchanan

When I was young, I used to imagine that people going about their daily lives have these thought bubbles that actually float around as they interact with each other. The proper “chat” bubble would show up when they speak audibly and the cloud-like bubble when they are thinking to themselves. Thanks to one of the Filipino’s national past time: comics!

I firmly believe, as others do, that you are a reader first, a writer second. I am not a voracious reader but I have had my share of novels; from the Mills and Boons of my early teenage years to the more mainstream of this generation. My bookshelf is lined with works from James Patterson, Jeffrey Archer, J K Rowling, Dan Brown, Cecelia Ahern, Jodie Picoult among others. And of course, I have my knitting books too!

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FO: Sockhead Invasion

2 Sep

It did look like a great big mitten before it was blocked. Big enough to fit a giant baby’s hand. I had my doubts about how this hat would fit any head in my household, but once it dried off the improvised blocking tool, it was perfectly slouchy.

But hang on, didn’t I just do a WIP-tastic Monday post about this hat? Well, yes I did, thank you very much. It was just that quick and pleasurable that I finished it quite sooner.

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Front and centre

1 Sep

Playing around with colours this past week, I realise I am destined never to do summery colours. I suck at bright and cheerful. Apart from that time when I did a sunshiny yellow.  The colours I come up with are probably extensions of who I am: intense. Maybe not outwardly so, but still intense. That is my story and I’m sticking to it.

As always, these colourways and their sisters can be found in my Etsy shop. Gee, I feel so grown-up saying that.  Go take a look please, even if all you do is look at the colours and tell me how wrong I am about being intense.

Grape Popsicle, 2 1 skein in Faith, Hope and Love

I want to lick this yarn up. Seriously. I also wish I dyed more so I can knit my own shawl in this colourway.  The way the silk takes in the dye never ceases to amaze me every time.

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Cravings

31 Aug

Filipinos love their sweets. We have so many varieties of desserts that it would make your teeth ache just reading about them. Here in Dubai, we are a bit deprived of native delicacies.

Sure there are stuff out in the local supermarkets but they are not made with the same fresh ingredients that my grandfather used so they don’t necessarily taste the same. You would be hard pressed to find any decent sapin-sapin here.  So we make do with what sweets we can get our hands on.

Kids are easy.  Just give them something cold and sweet and they’re on Cloud 9.  Me, not so much.

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WIP-tastic Monday

30 Aug

I am not fickle-minded. I have a very good attention span. I don’t get that “Oooh shiny!” moment, well not that often anyway. But when it comes to knitting, I lose all control. I just want to start on a new project every time I see something that I know I will be able to knit in no time.

True, I have a few WIPs lying about and that means a few sets of needles which I am unable to use for new projects. That reminds me, I need to do a needle inventory because I swear I have more then 5 sets of 2.5mm circulars and I cannot find any now in my needle case! Anyway, back to the topic, WIPs are a -plenty.

The cardigan for my niece had barely dried on the blocking foam when I pulled out this skein of STR Mediumwieght in Atomic 6 which I wound into a ball a while ago intending to cast on for a pair of socks for the Socks that Rawk Group KAL, about 2 quarters ago but never did. I wanted to knit my own Sockhead Hat, dammit!
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Iftar

29 Aug

Iftar (إفطار), refers to the evening meal when Muslims break their fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan. Iftar is one of the religious observances of Ramadan and is often done as a community, with people gathering to break their fast together. Iftar is done right after Maghrib (sunset) time.

Even though we are not Muslims and don’t fast during Ramadan, we observe and respect this custom. We still eat during the day, but we do it in the staff kitchen and we try not to serve drinks to guests openly in case we have a Muslim guest nearby. The admin staff also goes out to enjoy an Iftar meal – it’s become an annual event for us. This year, however, we have invited our CEO along and whoever else wanted to join in. Naturally we had to find a bigger venue.

Enter Atlantis, The Palm Dubai. They built a special tent, called Asateer, for this and it houses 600 guests and serves yummy Arabic food. Or so we’re told. We were unable to find out since,  unfortunately, we got bumped off the tent. By the Royal Family. Just as well though since, as Tim said, we’re not keen on seeing a whole roasted goat on top of a mountain of cooked rice. We ended up at Kaleidoscope, which is a good place and offers an international buffet.

Here is the gang, minus me since I’m behind the lens, post-Iftar so tummies are being pulled in.

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She likes pink

27 Aug

Little girls like pink. It’s all due to society stereotyping females of the species. When you know someone is expecting or just had a baby girl, you buy gifts which are, in one way or another, pink. Who said it has to be pink all the time anyway?

Society, that’s who!

Okay, but this is not about me hating pink and being pigeonholed into a any class. This is about my niece, who is 4 and loves pink. I have wanted to knit her a proper cardigan or sweater for a long time but was not confident enough until recently to try this out. After all, I now have 3 full-sized, i.e. “me” sized, cardigans under my knitting belt so this should be a cinch!

Presenting the very girly pink Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan for Roslin Isabelle.


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Superspecial Rare Gems

25 Aug

When I posted a comment on one of Cristi’s blog posts, there were no other comments. But after I hit submit, I saw that someone beat me to first comment. Bummer, I thought but left it at that.

A few hours later, Cristi emailed me saying my comment was #2100 and so I have won her Every-1000th-Comment Contest! See, being patient, or slow in composing your comments pays off. And this little beauty is my prize.


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Club Dragon Witch

25 Aug

I love receiving parcels in the mail. Esp when it has yarn in it. Duh.

I have been on a self-imposed yarn diet for a few months now. That means no buying yarn off the shelf. Everything that I am receiving now comes from clubs which I subscribed to either late last year or earlier this year. Plus yarn which I acquire through other means. :)

This is the latest installment from Club Dragon Witch. Four down, two more to go. Here is the entire package: yarn, pattern, sweet and a little extra something.


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And one more thing

24 Aug

Lately my mind has been wandering back to the days when I used to write fiction. Okay, fan fiction, but still fiction. And still writing. I may have dabbled in really teeny, fangirly stuff before, but hey we all go through that phase, it’s just that not everyone goes through that phase when they’re in their 30s.

Moving on. Yes, I picked up the virtual pen and started writing again. I don’t know what started it. The writing Muse is funny that way. I could be knitting and an idea would pop in my head and I just have to tug at that idea until it leads me to other bigger things.

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